The Open University of Israel
Dr. Esther Klein-Wohl

Dr. Esther Klein-Wohl

The English Department

Updated: 2014

 

Personal

Tel: 972-9-778-1143

Fax: 972-9-778-0601

E-mail: [email protected]

Languages: English, French, Hebrew, German, Hungarian, Yiddish

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Education

1996 Certificate in Online Education and Training, Institute of Education, University of London and Lancaster University
1994 Ph.D. Institute of Education, University of London. Prof. H. Widdowson, Advisor. ESOL Department. Applied Linguistics, Reading Comprehension for Academic Purposes and Distance Education
1983 M.A. Institute of Education, University of London, Media Department. Film and TV Studies for Education
1979 ESL/EFL Teacher's Certificate, Royal Society of Arts, International House Teacher Training College, London
1977 B.A. Westfield College, University of London, Romance Languages and Literature
1970 Teacher's Certificate in Education, Maria Assumpta College, University of London
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Fields of Research

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Academic Positions

2002 - Head of the English Department, The Open University of Israel
1997 - 2002 Director of Distance Learning Programs; Designer of asynchronous multimedia courseware, English Department
1991 - 1997 Pedagogical advisor for online in-service teacher training programs and academic reading courses
1987 - 1991 Coordinator of intermediate level reading comprehension courses
1994 - 2002 Institute of Education, University of London, Director of Israel MA programmes for teachers of English in Israel
2000 Distance Learning Consultant to Yeshiva University, New York
1999 - 2000 Educational Television of Israel, Ministry of Education - Academic Advisor for EFL program
1995 - 1997 David Yelin Teacher's Training College, Jerusalem - Head of English Department
1994 - 1995 Talpiot Teacher's Training College; Tel-Aviv - Lecturer in EFL: Academic Reading and Language Proficiency
1980 - 1987 The English Workshop Language School. London, England - Director and Lecturer
1992 Visiting Lecturer, Summer Institute, Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus
1991 - 1992 Consultant: Cable Television, Educational Projects - Using cable to reinforce ESL and EFL
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Research Grants

2014 EU TEMPUS ECOSTAR project, with I. Barth.
Co-leader of Open University's Work Package in EU-funded TEMPUS ECOSTAR project. ECOSTAR is a consortium of 15 universities and colleges in Israel and the EU. Goal of project is to reform the curriculum of EFL courses in Israeli higher educations by aligning Israeli EFL programs with the EU's CEFR.
2008 Open University Research Authority, Mapping the territory: Identifying barriers to implementation of OLRs among university English teachers (with I. Barth)
2008 Inter-University Center for E-learning (MEITAL), Development of open learning resources to support acquisition of English academic vocabulary (with I. Barth)
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Supervision of Theses

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List of Publications

Books and Monographs

Motivation: Is the Payoff Worth the Effort? (with A. Wohl). Academic Yearbook, Tel Aviv: Talpiot Teachers' College Press (1986, Hebrew).

The Testing Dilemma: Current Research versus Current Practice in Testing Reading (with A. Wohl). Academic Yearbook, Tel Aviv: Talpiot Teachers' College Press (1995, Hebrew).

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Chapters in Books

"Windows to the World - Connecting to the Global Village: A Teaching Model for Integrating Content, Language and Literacy" (with A. Wohl), in S. Guri- Rosenblatt, Ed.,Teachers in a Changing World: Trends and Challenges (pp. 325-355). The Open University, 2004.

"What first-language teachers can learn from second-language teachers," in A. Wohl and M. Horovitz, Eds., Reading: From Theory to Practice (Chapter 5, pp. 300-325). Tel Aviv: The Open University, 2002.

"The inter-relationships between second and first language teaching/learning" (with A. Wohl), in Miri Horowitz, Section Ed., Teaching Reading: From Theory to Practice, Vol. 5 (pp. 110-143). Tel Aviv: The Open University, 2000.

"Teaching and learning the language arts with cooperative learning methods" (with A. Wohl), in Shlomo Sharan, Ed., Handbook of Cooperative Learning. Wesport, CO: The Greenwood Educator's Reference Collection, 1994.

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Open University Publications

2000 Reading English for Academic Purposes, Course of study for the Open University of Israel, Distance Learning Mode.
1999 Applied Linguistics for Teachers of EFL, Course of study for Open University of Israel, Distance Learning Mode.
1999 Teaching Methodology for Teachers of EFL, Course of study for Open University of Israel, Distance Learning Mode.
1994-1997 Reading English for Academic Purposes, Course of study for Open University of Israel.
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Other Publications

Teaching Students to Use Text-Profilers: A Needs-Based Approach to Tertiary Level English Vocabulary Instruction (with I. Barth). International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching Vol. 1, Issue 3, pp. 86-98. 2011

"Thinking aloud, talking, and learning to read: ESL reading comprehension training in small cooperative groups" (with Y. Bejarano), Ilha Dodesterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies, 38 (2000), pp.57-81.

Evaluation report: Development of an Online E Level English Course: A Pilot Study (with G. Shuster-Bouskila, C. Gordon), 2006.

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Selected Papers at Scientific Conferences

2011 Roads to Academic Reading in English: New Tools for Helping Students Cope with English Vocabulary in Academic Texts (with I. Barth & Y. Ersoff), UTELI Conference - University Teachers of English Language in Israel, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
2011 Roads to Academic Reading in English: Building Students' Capacity to Cope with Vocabulary in Academic Texts (with Y. Ersoff & I.Barth), FACET Conference: (Forum of Academic College English Teachers). Teaching for the test or testing what we teach? Finding the balance between academic and real world needs, Ort-Braude College, Carmiel, Israel.
2009 “Language can open doors: Online self-study tools for crossing language barriers” (with I. Barth), EU ENPI Conference on Regional Capacity Building Initiative, Amman, Jordan.
2009 “From 'fishes' to fishing-rods: Open learning resources for acquisition of English academic vocabulary” (with I. Barth), Seventh Annual Conference of Israel Inter-University Computation Center (Meital), Tel Aviv.
2008 “The Impact of Affective Communications on Students' Perceptions and Performance in an Online University Course” (with C. Gordon and T. Persoff), SITE - the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education Las Vegas, NV.
2005 “Accommodating the Needs of Low Level EFL Readers in On-line Instruction” (with N. Bousso), Association of Learning Technology Conference, Manchester.
2000 “Computer Mediated Communication for Distance Education: Developing and Teaching A Second Language Course,” International Educational Media Conference, Montreal, Canada.
1999 “A Second Language Course in Academic Reading via E-Mail,” UTELI Conference, University of Haifa.
1986 “Are Teacher Trainers Motivated to Teach Innovatively?,” The Second International Conference on Teacher Education: Stability, Evolution and Revolution, Wingate Institute. Israel.
1990 “Using Authentic Television Programmes for EFL Instruction,” Teacher Training Workshop, Educational Television of Israel.
1989 “Small Groups, Metacognition and ESL Methods,” TESOL Conference, Athens, Greece.
1989 “Are our Students Listening Without Thinking or Thinking Without Listening?,” SCRIPT Conference on Text Processing. Israel.
1988 “Learning a Second Language with Bill Cosby,” Educational Television Senior Team's Conference, Ministry of Education, Jerusalem.
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